in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, with
the intention of doing what the church does, is not true baptism; let
him be accursed!
[Here is another of those rules, by which the holy Romish church leaves
herself room to impose upon the public. Can any man believe, can any one
even suppose a case, where a heretic acts, or intends to act, according
to the intention of the church of Rome; The very act of heresy was
against that church and her doctrines; and the truth is, if the church
would speak honestly, or her priests and bishops do so for her, all
who are not baptized in the Romish church, and who are baptized, are
eternally damned. So thinks, and so teaches, the Popish church.]
"5. Whoever shall say that baptism is optional, that is, not necessary
to salvation; let him be accursed!
"6. Whoever shall say that a baptized person cannot, even if he would,
lose grace, how much soever he may sin, unless he is unwilling to
believe; let him be accursed!
"7. Whoever shall say that baptized persons, by baptism itself, become
debtors to preserve faith alone, and not the whole law of Christ; let
him be accursed!
"8. Whoever shall say that baptized persons are free from all precepts
of holy church, which are either written or traditional, so that they
are not bound to observe them, unless they choose to submit themselves
to them of their own accord; let him be accursed!
"9. Whoever shall say that men are so to be recalled to the memory of
the baptism which they have received, that they may regard all the vows
which are made after baptism as null and void, by virtue of the promise
already made in baptism itself, as if by it they detract from the faith
which they have professed, and from the baptism itself; let him be
accursed!
"10. Whoever shall say that all the sins which we committed after
baptism, by the mere remembrance and faith of the baptism received, are
either dismissed or become venial; let him be accursed!
"11. Whoever shall say that a baptism, truly and with due ceremony
conferred, is to be repeated on him who has denied the faith of Christ
among infidels, when he is converted to repentance; let him be accursed!
"12. Whoever shall say that no one is to be baptized, except at that
age at which Christ was baptized, or in the article of death; let him be
accursed!
"13. Whoever shall say that infants, because they have not the act of
faith, are not to be reckoned among believers after having received
baptism, and on this account are to be re-baptized when they arrive at
years of discretion; or that it is better that their baptism be omitted,
than that they should be baptized in the faith only of the church, when
they do not believe by their own act; let him be accursed!
"14. Whoever shall say that baptized children of this kind, when they
have grown up, are to be asked whether they wish to have that ratified
which their sponsors promised in their name when they were baptized;
and that when they reply that they are unwilling, they are to be left to
their own choice; and that they are not in the meantime to be compelled
by any other punishment, to a Christian life, except that they be
prohibited the enjoyment of the Eucharist, and the other sacraments,
until they repent; let him be accursed!"
This last canon, as the reader perceives, explains fully why Roman
Catholics are so anxious for the baptism of Protestant children by their
priests. It gives them the power of compelling those children, should
they deem it expedient to do so, to profess the Catholic faith, and
thereby strengthening her power. They try to alienate the children from
the parents; or calculating upon that natural affection with which a
parent clings to a child, they hope to bring over the parent also to
the _Catholic faith_; or, failing in this, they hope to break up those
alliances of blood which nature has established, and that community of
interest and feeling, which society has sanctioned, and religion and
nature have blessed, between parent and child.
A true Papist will stop at nothing to advance the power of the Pope,
or the interest of the holy church. Heretics, by which the reader will
understand all who do not belong to the Roman Catholic church, are to be
destroyed, cost what it will. Death, and the destruction of heretics,
is the watchword of Popery. Down with Protestant governments, kings,
presidents, governors, judges, and all other civil and religious
authorities, is the war-cry in Popish countries. They desire neither
to live nor die with us. They refuse to be laid down in the same common
earth with us. Need this be proved to Americans? One would suppose not.
Our intercourse with Roman Catholic countries is such, at present, that
there can be no longer any doubt of this fact.
Our commercial transactions with Spain, Portugal, South America, Mexico,
and the neighboring Island of Cuba, enables many of our people to judge
for themselves, and say what is now the condition of Protestants in
those countries where Popery predominates. Can a Protestant worship God
in those countries, according to the dictates of his own conscience? He
cannot. They are all told by their priests, that a Protestant is a thing
too unclean to worship God until he is first baptised and then shrived
or confessed by their priests. A Protestant cannot even carry his Bible
with him, into these countries. Many of my fellow-citizens, who may
see this statement, will bear testimony to its truth. When a Protestant
arrives at any port in a _purely_ Catholic country, his trunks and his
person are examined; and if a bible is found in them, or about him, it
is taken from him. The ministers of his religion dare not accompany him,
or if he does, his lips are sealed, under pain of a lingering death.
Should sickness lay its heavy hand upon him, there is no minister to
attend him, no Bible allowed him, from which he may quench his thirst
for the waters of life. Should death visit him, there is _no one to
close_ the eyes of the lonely Protestant stranger. A good Roman Catholic
would not touch the _accursed heretic_, and when dead he is not allowed
the rights of Christian interment; he must be cast by the wayside, as
suitable food for the hog, the dog, and the buzzard. How many a worthy
American have I seen myself, in Cuba, cast away when dead, as you would
a carrion, not even a coffin to cover him; and why all this? Because he
was a heretic; because he did not believe in the supremacy of the
Pope, and the infallibility of the Romish church; and yet those inhuman
wretches, those libels upon religion and humanity, come among us, ask
you for lands on which to build churches and pulpits, from which they
curse you and your children; become citizens of your republic, inmates
in your families, with smiles on their faces and curses in their hearts
for you. Let not this language be deemed exaggeration. I have heard
it, I have witnessed it, I have seen it. And yet Americans, heedlessly
fancying themselves and their institutions secure, refuse these, their
sworn enemies, and foes of their religion, nothing they ask for. Such
is the listlessness and apathy of our people upon this subject, that, as
far as I am acquainted, no appeal has ever been made to our government,
to ask even for a modification of those barbarities, with which our
Protestant citizens are treated, in Roman Catholic countries; nor has
there been any effort made to alter our free constitution, so as to
enable us to retaliate upon those Popish monsters, and obtain from
the bloodthirsty cowards, at the point of the bayonet, those common
privileges, which are almost among the necessary appurtenances of
humanity, and which even a Pagan would scarcely deny to a fellow-being.
I hold it as undeniable, that even as Protestants, we are, at least by
implication, entitled by our treaties of alliance with Popish countries,
to far different treatment from that which we receive; and had the
question been considered by _our people_, either in their primary
meetings, or through their representatives, they would have long since,
insisted upon due protection and respect for the natural rights of their
citizens abroad. These natural rights can neither be sold nor exchanged;
their free exercise is guaranteed by implication in every treaty we make
with foreign nations, and cannot be violated by them without giving just
cause of war.
Let political casuists say what they please, there is no principle
better established in political ethics, than that all international
treaties of amity and commerce, should be formed, and if formed, should
be kept, upon principles of justice and reciprocity. The same national
amity and courtesy, which our Protestant country extends to Popish
nations and their people, should be extended by them to us By national
friendship and comity, is not, I apprehend, and should not, be meant or
understood, the privilege of selling a bale of cotton here or a bag of
coffee there. It includes the free exercise of the rights of the parties
thereto, so far, at least, as they are not incompatible with each other,
or with the general principles of natural or national law. The Spaniard,
the Portuguese, the Italian, the Mexican, or Cuban, may worship his God,
the Virgin Mary, or any saint he pleases, and no American will disturb
him; no American will forbid him. If he dies, his priests may have him
buried where he will. This is as it should be. Man has a natural right
to worship God; it is a right implanted in his very nature. As well may
we say to a man, thou shalt not breathe the air of our country, as say,
thou shalt not worship the God that gave thee birth; and as well also
may we say, thou shalt not worship that God except according to the mode
which we prescribe, as forbid him doing so at all. The natural right
of worshipping God, or a first cause, implies the right of doing so
according to the dictates of each man's conscience, provided, in doing
it, we interfere with none of those laws, which civilized nations should
reverence. This is the principle on which we act with Popish countries
and people, and upon the principle of reciprocal justice, we ought to
demand similar treatment from them.
We have friendly treaties with these people. Friendly, forsooth! Can
that man or that nation be friendly, who forbids us to read our Bibles
within their territories, or to bury our dead among their dead, or to
worship God according to the usages of our forefathers, or the dictates
of our own conscience? Such treaties should rather be termed _treaties
for the abrogation of natural rights of Americans within Popish
dominions_. We enjoy no rights there; and if we have any by implication,
under our treaties, they are impiously wrested from us by a wicked
rabble of priests and bishops, distinguished only for their ignorance,
rapacity, and licentiousness.
I solemnly call upon every American citizen, who reveres his God,
respects his fellow-citizens, or values the happiness of his country, to
submit no longer to Popish insolence abroad, and to allow them no rights
in this country, which they are not willing to reciprocate. If our
existing treaties of _amity_ with Popish powers are not sufficient to
protest us in the free exercise of our religion, when among them, let us
break them, let us tear them asunder, and scatter them as chaff before
the wind. They were never binding upon us. They were made in violation
of natural rights, which God alone could give, and man cannot take
away. Call upon your government to protect you; choose no man as your
representative who will allow Popery to flourish in this free soil, and
witness the religion of your forefathers trampled upon, with impunity,
by Papists in a neighboring country; and if you cannot obtain your
rights by law, you will show the world that you have, at least, moral
and physical courage enough to redress your wrongs.
Let not Papists, who, at the distance of a few days' sail from your
ports, would deny your brother the rights of Christian interment, or
the consolation of dying with his Bible in his hand, dare call upon your
aid, to propagate a religion, which inculcates principles worse and more
dangerous than were ever practised in Pagan lands.
Much sympathy is felt and expressed, particularly in this state of
Massachusetts, where I write for some of her colored population,
because it is deemed necessary, in slave states, to prevent them
from commingling with their slaves, lest they may excite them to
dissatisfaction with their condition, and ultimately to insurrection.
It is deemed a matter of such magnitude that Massachusetts, in
the plenitude of its sympathy, felt herself called upon to send an
ambassador to South Carolina, to protect her citizens, and demand
redress for this supposed outrage upon her rights. It is not my
intention to enter into the merits or demerits of the question at issue
between the states of Massachusetts and South Carolina. I will merely
state, that the former consists in this, viz: by a law of the state
of South Carolina, every free person of color, entering that state, is
liable to be imprisoned till he leaves the state. This is done by
South Carolina and some other slave states, as a necessary measure
of precaution; but the prisoner is kindly treated; at least, we hear
nothing to the contrary; no such complaint is made by Massachusetts. The
prisoner is allowed the free exercise of his religion; his friends may
visit him almost at any hour; his spiritual instructor is never denied
access to him; he may have his Bible with him, or any other books he
may think proper. But this will not satisfy the sympathizing people of
Massachusetts. They call public meetings of their citizens; threaten to
dissolve the union; and declare they will raise a sufficient military
force to invade South Carolina, and redress this outrage upon a
citizen's rights, at the point of the bayonet.
Man is truly a strange being, and various indeed are the currents of
his sympathies, but still more various and unaccountable are the causes
which often set them in motion. It is comparatively but seldom, that a
colored citizen of the North goes to slave states; but if there should
be the least infraction of his civil rights, the whole North flies into
a passion; and yet this very people of the North can see the citizens of
their own country, kindred, and blood, in a neighboring Popish port of
Havana, for instance, deprived of all their rights, both conventional
and natural, without a murmur. Not a complaint is heard in New England,
from the son, whose father is confined in the dungeons of Cuba, not
because he is suspected of any intention to create insurrection, but
simply because he refused to kneel to some wooden image, which a parcel
of debauched priests are lugging about the streets; or because he
expresses his belief that such processions and mummeries are worse than
Pagan idolatry.
The American Protestant, who will dare worship his God publicly, or even
in private, within the walls of his own house, unless with closed doors,
and without the knowledge of the Popish spies of the Inquisition, is
liable to imprisonment, from which, in all probability, he is never to
be released. If a Bible be found in his house, it is burned, and he and
his family are cast into jail. This is the case in every country where
the Popish church has power enough to make its religion that of the
state; and yet we have treaties of _amity_, with these countries. What
a burlesque upon _amity!_ what a mockery of friendly relations, with
a people who deny us the exercise of the natural right which every man
has, to worship God as he pleases! who compel our fathers, brothers, and
our sons, to bow the knee, in idolatrous worship, to wooden images, and
particles of bread, which are paraded as _Gods_, through the streets,
in Roman Catholic countries. Friendly relations, forsooth, with a people
who consider us damned, and already consigned to perdition! And yet
we hear no complaint in Massachusetts, of cruelties to our citizens;
nothing is said of the violation of those friendly relations, secured
to us by treaty, and annually declared by our presidents, in their
messages, to exist and to be maintained between our people and those
Popish countries. When we hear of an American citizen in Cuba, when
we hear of his natural rights being trampled under foot, by Catholic
governors, bishops, and priests, no complaint is made of a violation
of friendly alliance; no meeting is called to express sympathy for the
individual sufferer, or indignation against the treacherous government
of Popery; no act of our legislature has been passed, making
appropriations to send ambassadors to these neighboring nations, for
injuries done to our citizens; and yet it is a well-known fact, that
where one colored citizen of New England is imprisoned, for a few days,
in South Carolina, there are a thousand of our enterprising seamen and
merchants, confined in the dungeons of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Mexico,
and Cuba, at our very door. How long will these outrages be tolerated?
A Popish captain comes here; the hands before the mast are Papists;
the ship may have her chaplain, or may have as many _little gods_, and
saints, indulgences, scapulas, beads, and rosaries, as they please; they
may land, captain, crew, saints, and all, and no one molests them;
but if an American ship arrives at the very port from which the other
sailed, her captain and crew are forbidden even to carry their Bible on
shore; but should the ship have a Protestant chaplain, and that chaplain
venture on shore, with his congregation of sailors--all American
freemen--he dare not take his Bible with him, or hold religious worship
on this Popish soil; and should this captain, chaplain, or any of the
crew die, he is not allowed Christian burial, unless he can buy the
privilege from, profligate priests, at an enormous sacrifice of money,
and after certain purifications effected by holy water, and smoking,
which they call _incense_. This is what our government calls _friendly
relations_.
How long shall we be amused by the executive messages, annually
informing us of receiving "assurances of friendship from Popish
countries?" Let the people take this subject into their own hands; let
them have no alliance, no treaty, no commerce with a people, who will
deny them the right of worshipping God peaceably and respectfully, or
who will refuse them the right of burying their dead decently and with
due solemnity. The treaties which are made with Papists begin, on their
part, with the most solemn avowal of good faith, in the name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They assure us of their friendly sentiments
towards us under this solemn and awful sanction; but no sooner is this
promise made--no sooner have they pledged their honor, their faith,
and all that is holy, to support it--than they disregard all those
obligations, feeling and believing that they are already dispensed with
by their church, which teaches them to hold no faith with heretics.
The priests, however, and bishops, more crafty than the mass of their
people, plead _state necessity_ for withholding from us privileges which
we give them. This is a shallow pretext, and worthy only of the source
from which it comes. Can any case be supposed, or any necessity arise,
to violate the eternal principles of right and wrong, of justice and
truth? Are moral and national obligations anything more than mere dead
letters and leaden rules, which can be bent by hands strong enough to do
so, and to suit their own purposes and designs?
Suppose a man in private life--suppose further that man to be a
Papist--he enters into a treaty of alliance and friendship with a
Protestant; he calls God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to witness
that he will fulfil his engagement; we can easily fancy the Protestant,
within the jurisdiction of that Papist, reading his Bible, without
interfering or any way molesting the individual within whose
jurisdiction he is. Let us imagine this Protestant seized by the Papist,
thrown into prison by him, while alive, and if dead, thrown away as food
for the birds of prey. Would you call this fulfilling the obligations
of friendship or friendly alliance? Would the Protestant ever enter
into such a treaty of alliance again? Would not every Protestant who
witnessed this transaction look upon the Papist who committed it,
even though he be but a private individual, as a bad man, with whom no
further intercourse ought to be had? Assuredly, he would. But let it
be borne in mind, that actions do not change their nature; immutable
principles are always the same; they do not change with the paucity
or number of actors; what is bad in an individual will be wrong in a
nation, and in every individual of that nation. The only difference is,
that an act of perfidy and bad faith in a nation is, if possible, worse
in itself, and infinitely more mischievous, than if committed by an
individual.
Our political sophists may deny this, and gloss over the conduct of
Popish governments towards our citizens while among them; but they
cannot long hide from our people that the eternal laws of truth
cannot be violated; nor can their meaning be frittered away by the
technicalities of treaties. Truth, whether moral or political, is like
the suu of heaven; it is but one--it is the same every where. It is
sometimes clouded, it is true, but these clouds are momentary; they
pass away, and it shines again in its native brilliancy. The day is fast
coming, and I trust it has even arrived, when Americans will see, that
by a treaty of amity is not meant the right of shipping our commodities
to Popish countries, and receiving theirs in exchange; reserving to one
party the privilege of denying to the other a right dearer to him
than all earthly considerations; and which is guarantied to him by the
eternal laws of God, while the other party is under no restraint as to
the full and free enjoyment of those natural rights. And here, I beg
leave to say to our legislators, that Protestant Americans, upon due
reflection, will not long give their assent to any treaty, nor form an
alliance with any country, which shall deny them the free exercise of
their religion.